Chris McGuire resigns after 20 seasons as head coach of Shawnee boys basketball

One of the winningest coaches in Clark County boys basketball history has resigned.

Shawnee High School coach Chris McGuire stepped down earlier this month to spend more time with his wife Carrie and their 14-month-old son Callahan.

“It got to where I wanted to be home a little bit more than I wanted to be at the gym,” McGuire said. “The minute I thought that, it was time to pass the torch on to somebody else. For so long, I just wanted to be in the gym, in the gym, in the gym and I’ve done that for all these years. I’ve been fortunate later in life to have a family, and I want to make the most of it.”

McGuire led the Braves program for 20 seasons. His final record was 300-165. He won four league championships, a district title and four district runner-up trophies. McGuire is also the winningest coach in Shawnee history across all sports.

“I’ve really loved it over all these years,” he said. “We’ve had great support from the administration. I’ve had great assistant coaches, great parents and I’ve had great players. I really have had a great experience there. When you talk to other coaches, there are parent problems and parents involved who make it not enjoyable and I really can say I didn’t have any of that. I always had great support and great respect from them. With the players, we’ve had such great players over the years that it made my job a whole lot easier.”

Credit: Barbara J. Perenic

McGuire, a Graham High School graduate, spent one season at Bethel before he got the job at Shawnee in 2005 when he replaced Dave Marshall, who had the job for five years. McGuire was the winningest active coach in Clark County and ranks fifth all-time behind Ohio High School Basketball Hall of Famers Wayne Wiseman and Don Henderson, as well as Kris Spriggs and Bill Smith.

“It’s a great honor,” McGuire said. “There have been a lot of great coaches in Clark County, and granted I’ve been doing it a long time. It’s just more, I think, a testament to the guys I’ve had over the years. Overall, I’ve had great groups of guys. I’ve had multiple Clark County Mr. Basketballs and conference players of the year. I’ve had some great players, but the great thing about it all is that all of the years, just having great kids at Shawnee, they’ve all bought in to what we’ve tried to do.”

McGuire’s teams were known for playing relentless man-to-man defense, which included nearly every player on his team taking or attempting to take a charge at some point throughout a season.

“We played man pretty much all the time, and we got to where we were switching all the screens and switching with every guy so everyone would guard inside and outside,” he said. “We thought if we could defend and defend at a high level, that it would keep us in games, regardless of whether or not the ball was going in the hoop that night. Overall, the kids bought into that, bought into the defensive philosophy. We preached it from Day 1 of practice all the way through the entire season, understanding we had to defend and do those things.”

Offensively, the Braves played a similar grind-it-out style that used long possessions to slow down the game.

“We thought in a lot of those cases we really had to control the pace and control the tempo of the games,” McGuire said. “We focused on getting great shots. We never led in 3-point attempts or 3-point makes, but we tried to get the best shot we could get with really everyone screening and cutting and doing things to help get other guys open, not just themselves. That went with all the great players that I had — even the best ones still screened to get other guys open, which got them open. It was all about ball movement and player movement for us offensively.”

One of McGuire’s favorite games came in 2015. The Braves played Franklin, led by current NBA player Luke Kennard, in a district final game in front of more than 10,000 people at University of Dayton Arena.

“That’s by far the most people we’d ever played in front of and that atmosphere was incredible,” McGuire said. “That’s a great memory.”

Credit: Barbara J. Perenic

The rivalry games against Kenton Ridge, Tecumseh and Tippecanoe also stuck out among his favorites.

In 2012-13, the Braves set the school record for most wins in a season with 23. In 2021, the Braves won a district title and advanced to a D-III regional final game for the first time since 1975.

“We’ve had some really good games,” McGuire said, “and some really fun experiences over the years.”

The door is always open for McGuire to return to coaching at some point, he said.

“I enjoy coaching, and I love the game of basketball,” McGuire said. “I love being with all the guys. That’s one of the things I’m going to miss the most — the guys and that camaraderie with them and the coaches. It’s a possibility I could be back in it as (his son) gets older.”

Until then, he plans to spend his time coaching up his son, who is already shooting on a Little Tikes hoop.

“My big thing was that I want to make sure that I’m here for him and taking advantage of all these moments,” McGuire said. “Everyone told me it goes by so fast and they’re right. It’s flying by right now. I’m taking advantage of these moments and if he gets into basketball and wants to be a part of that then maybe I’ll be part of that journey with him as well.”